Earth Day Conference Explores ‘Constructing Space(s)'

Writing Across Communities presents the second annual Earth Day conference, "Constructing Space(s)': Making our Home(s) in the Twenty-First Century," on Friday, April 22, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. in the Student Union Building, ballroom A and fiesta room. The keynote speaker is M. Jimmie Killingsworth of Texas A&M.;

The conference brings together students, faculty and community members in conversations about a broad range of practical and theoretical issues in environmentalism and environmental sciences. Panel discussions draw on perspectives and expertise from humanities, social sciences and hard sciences.

The keynote speech is at noon in SUB ballroom A. Killingsworth is professor and head of the English department at Texas A&M.; His books include "Ecospeak: Rhetoric and Environmental Politics in America" and "Whitman's Poetry of the Body: Sexuality, Politics, and the Text." Killingsworth also participates in local nature education programs and is a member of the Brazos Valley Chapter of Texas Master Naturalists.

Event coordinator Erin Penner Gallegos said of the conference theme, "the idea of constructing space is both theoretical and practical." She said the conference "invites discussion about how physical, rhetorical and spiritual constructions of space can best be undertaken sustainably, ethically and in concert with one another."